


Rosebud

by StarChild92



Category: Original Work
Genre: Multi, Original Character(s), Original Fiction, Other
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-02-08
Updated: 2020-06-29
Packaged: 2021-02-28 02:41:52
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 4
Words: 14,483
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/22606438
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/StarChild92/pseuds/StarChild92
Summary: A young woman stumbles onto an ancient chest within an abandoned house deep within the forest. What she doesn't realize is that what's inside will reveal a mystery that has been waiting for millennia. Will she able to piece together the clues and solve a very old question that lies within?
Comments: 1
Kudos: 3





	1. Prologue: Sleep

**Author's Note:**

> I'd like to thank my incredible friends Dani, Syd, Matty, Alex and Katie for their constant love and encouragement! Because of you guys, I feel confident in posting where all can read. I hope you guys all enjoy!
> 
> Quick note I want to add, there's no set post date for this short(?) story/fiction, I'm taking this all at my own pace but I hope you guys like both the story and my characters!

* * *

Rain pounded harshly against the glass of the Benoit family manor, most of the windows in the home were dark save for the study where the soft glow from a candle and the warmth of the hearth illuminated the room from both the inside and from the road. Hunched slightly over the mahogany desk, Abel was finishing up some minor affairs; at least, that had been the plan until he found himself picking up a long-forgotten book he had put off writing. Withered and shaky hands turned the delicate pages of the story when a soft knock rapped against the door. “It’s open.” He called out as he looked up from his book, sliding a bit of paper into the page before adjusting his spectacles to the door; to think, on occasion as a child he had poked fun at his sister for needing to wear the things. He still remembered the cat-like grin on her face when his vision began to head out the door. Abel missed her terribly.

The door creaked open, the hinges needed some oil, as a woman with graying chestnut hair came in with a cup of warm tea in her hands. “I have your tea father.” She spoke loud enough for him to hear her as she crossed the length of the room to sit at his bedside. “How are you feeling?”

“Better, Josie, thank you.” Abel smiled as he took the herbal tea from his daughter and gently sipped at it to find it heated how he liked. Earlier in the afternoon, a terrible headache had moved him to lie down for a while but it had faded away some time ago, which was about when he decided to finish up the afternoon with some work. That was hours ago and now it was so dark that it was well time for bed.

A smile came to Josephine's aging features, both the reassurance of her father’s health and the childhood nickname. “Oh, the girls wanted me to tell you goodnight for them and that they love you.” Her smile grew bigger when she saw one coming to Abel’s face, he loved his granddaughters and loved spending every moment he could to spoil them rotten.

“Such sweet girls, even when they’re being cheeky.” He chuckled tiredly, the herbal tea always did make him a tad sleepy. “I guess they had to learn it from someone.” He couldn’t help but tease her as she helped him to stand so he could go to bed.

“Now who’s the cheeky one?” Josephine raised an inquisitive brow at her father who looked away from her with an oh so innocent look as they walked through the halls until they came to the stairs. Going up the stairs was a little slow-moving due to her father’s advanced years but with some patience, they always made it without issues; even on the super rainy nights where Abel swore the rain made his joints worse, much like this night.

“Well you certainly didn’t learn it from me, must’ve been your mother.” Abel looked back to her with a fond smile as his eyelids grew heavy, the tea already dragging him down into sleep as he offered his hand to his daughter, giving her hand a gentle squeeze as he thought of his departed wife. “Ahh, but they’re good girls, I’m sure you can raise them into wonderful young Ladies.” He smiled despite the soft frown on her features; he had been feeling his advanced age these last few weeks and he knew she didn’t like it when he got to speaking grimly but it couldn’t be helped.

“It’s late dad, you should get some rest.” She offered with a loving smile as she opened his bedroom door for him and moved to help him to bed should he need it. “You know how the girls like to get up nice and early to listen to your stories.” Josephine kissed his temple as settled in. “Do you need anything else while I’m up?”

“No, but thank you, Josie. Goodnight dear, I love you.” He smiled up at her as she kissed him goodnight before he watched her leave before settling down into the soft pillows as the door closed with a loud squeak. That would be the first thing on his list tomorrow, getting that damn door oiled. Abel turned his attention from the door to the small nightstand by his bedside, his old joints creaking as he sat up again to open the drawer and remove a small clothed bundle from inside. He held it tightly as he settled back into bed with a tired groan, his hands shaking ever so slightly as he unwrapped the bundle to gaze upon the dragon locket that had once belonged to his sister, gifted to him upon her passing. With years of practice, the locket came open in one hand while the other one reached for the locket tucked within his shirt, both necklaces coming to rest on his chest as they displayed their hidden portraits of his family. In all the pictures, all the figures were wearing the dragon lockets, signifying them all like one big family. “Ari…” A finger delicately touched the portrait with a red-haired woman “Dear sister, was this how you felt that night?” He sighed tiredly as he laid his head back down, his eyes closing as he drifted off to sleep with the lockets resting in his hands. “I wonder, how will they be without us?” Abel pondered as he closed his eyes, the world going still as the storm outside subsided and the candle by his bedside snuffed out with one last breath.


	2. Homeward Bound

* * *

Rain pelted hard against the window of the cabin as the train sped through the darkened countryside, fat clouds of smoke from the smokestack billowed and cast darker shadows that stood out as it danced past the few windows that were still illuminated. By the time had departed from the station, the sun had set long ago so the few lights were a stark contrast against the dark night. Most of the lights came from the crew cars though there were still a few night owl passengers still up and about. 

Marie was one of those night owls; she was alone in the cabin so she had the lights on though they were dimmed enough to read by but not disturb any of the cabins behind hers. The young woman had made herself comfortable shortly after getting on the train after finding she was alone for the ride; “comfortable” being throwing her pillow and blanket onto the sleeping bench seat and made a little cocoon of comfort while her carry-on bag sat on the other end of the seat so she could reach for anything she wanted. Once the train had started moving and all announcements were done, she had grabbed one of her favorite books and threw on her headphones before snuggling in for the ride.

An inspecting knock came to the door though it was barely heard over the music playing in the young woman’s headphones. It was only when the song ended that a second knock, this one a bit louder as it was tapped on the glass window of the door, was heard and caught the attention of the occupant.  
Marie looked up from her novel to the door and paused her music as she got up from her cocoon, taking a moment to zip up her oversized hoodie as the world outside her blanket was chilly, and answered the door where a rather sleepy-looking crew member was on the other side. “Yes?” She hadn’t been loud, in fact, she was practically the only one in the whole car save for another passenger near the front while she was closer to the back. 

“Just doing the rounds Miss, making sure everything is well?” He tipped his hat ever so slightly as she opened the door. It was obvious she was alone, the luggage rack only had two suitcases secured and there was no one else inside the cozy cabin.

“Oh! Yes, everything is fine, thank you.” The ride so far had been pleasantly quiet and uneventful, perfect for reading.

“Very good, sorry for the disturbance.” The crewman nodded, his job done which meant he was now free to swap shifts and began back up the length of the train so he could get some shut-eye.

Marie stood there as she watched him leave for a few moments before retreating back into her cabin, a shiver escaping her as wisps of cool air slipped past her hoodie which made her want to jump back into her little blanket cocoon that she had made. A part of her was grateful that she had gotten this particular ride, it wasn’t often she got an entire cabin to herself and she found the silence to be quite nice too, especially since the majority of the train was like this. As she got comfortable and readjusted her headphones, she checked the time on her tablet to resume her music and found it was just a quarter past ten. “Still got a long way to go .” She mused as she calculated the time while stretching before opening her book again to resume where she had left off.

Before she could truly get back into her book, a small  _ ‘ping!’ _ noise once again stole her attention as it paused the music, she looked back to her tablet that was flashing with email notification. “Yeah, yeah, I hear you.” she chided the device as it pinged again, the noise silenced as she opened the email. “From Grandad? What’s he doing awake?” 

_‘Marie, I’m sure you’re still awake if you’re reading this.’_  
  
“Well, he’s not wrong” A chuckle escaped her as she leaned back into her blanket nest while she read the rest.

_ ‘Your grandmother and I can’t wait to have you back home, we’re thrilled to bits and your grandmother has been prepping all of your favorites for when you get here. I’ve also been asked to tell you that everyone here is excited to see you again as well and on that note, we’ve got a surprise for you. And no, I’m not telling you what it is, so don’t even try. We can’t wait to see you, one of us will be waiting to pick you up at the station, so try to get some sleep while you can. _

_ Love you lots, _

_ -Papa _

Another chuckle. She had missed her grandparents terribly while she was away at school, though she spoke to them just about every night and visited when she could. Taking another glance at the time, it was probably a good suggestion to get some sleep, especially after pulling more than a few all-nighters in school. “Goodnight Papa, see you when I get there.” Marie powered down her tablet before stashing it away with the rest of her belongings and turned out the light. “I wonder what he’s up to, should be fun.” Marie pondered to herself as she wrapped herself up more in her hoodie and blanket, eyes growing heavy until the sounds of the train rumbling lulled her to sleep.

**FWOOOOOOOOOO!**

The train’s whistle sharply rang out, startling Marie from her slumber to the point of falling out of her “bed” and onto the floor. “Hu-what?!” She looked around frantically as the train whistled again, a look out the window revealed that they were approaching the station! 

_ “Attention all passengers” _ The conductor’s voice piped up on the intercom  _ “We are approaching our destination. Please wait until we have come to a complete stop before removing any items from the overhead racks. Thank you for riding with us and have a wonderful day.” _

After hearing that they were approaching the station, Marie quickly picked herself up off the floor and tied back her hair in her favorite hair clip before folding up her blanket to pack it away with the rest of her belongings. She doubled then triple checked to make sure all of her belongings were in her personal carry on bag despite the fact that the majority of her things hadn’t left her bag; growing up, her Nana had always told her to “get what you need but put it back in its proper place”. She had been pretty good about keeping up with that rule, especially while traveling on public transportation. “I guess I should text them” Marie muttered to herself as she smoothed out the sleep-induced wrinkles out of her clothes though as she reached for her phone, it beeped with its little musical chime.

_ “Is this you?! _ ” The message from her granddad read along with several little heart emoticons. The little typing bubble popped up for a brief moment before it was replaced by a picture of her train, the angle showing that it was currently pulling up to the station which was evidenced by the sound of the brakes mildly screeching as the train came to a slow stop. 

Once the train stopped, Marie reached for her bags on the rack, she had to stand on her tippy toes as it was just barely out of reach otherwise. “Oof!” She grunted as her fingers barely met with one suitcase and nearly hit her chest as it slipped from the rack. Thankfully the other one’s handle was closer so she was able to grab that one with ease. With her suitcases and personal bag in her hands once again, she stepped out of the cabin and joined the disembarking crowd as yet another whistle rang out. The morning sun was terrible on her barely awakened vision so she fished out her rose-tinted sunglasses to ease the glare on her poor eyes.  
“Marie! Over here!” The familiar voice of her grandfather called out to the young woman, the older man smiling as he held the leash on a _very_ happy white and brindle pitbull who barked excitedly at the sight of her.

Her head turned quickly with a smile on her face as she saw whom it belonged to. “Grandad!” She ran to her grandfather and the two caught each other in a massive bear hug, both of them laughing as they were really happy to be reunited. “Hi, Peanut!” She squealed at the dog who tried to jump onto her to give her kisses, the dog’s tail wagging at near Mach speed while the rest of its body wiggled in glee. “Who’s my good boy?!” She laughed as the dog barked as he tried to jump up to her for pets and attention.

“There’s my girl!” Raphael squeezed his granddaughter extra tight before pressing a kiss to her cheek as he set her down. “Did you have a nice ride?” He asked as he got the excitable hound to settle a little before handing her the leash

“Yeah, I had the whole cabin to myself to read in.” She shuffled her bag more onto her shoulder while giving her pup a deep head scratch, a chuckle escaping her as the dog nearly flopped over in happiness. “Peanut, you goofy boy.”

“That’s no surprise.” He playfully teased which earned him a playful elbow jab. “Well my little bookworm, shall we get on the road? I’ve got breakfast waiting in the car, not that Mr. Peanut here hasn’t tried to eat it for you.” He cast a playful but scolding look at the dog who seemed to be oblivious to the fact he had just been tattled on.  
“Sounds great to me, I can’t wait to see Mama and everyone again!” She took up one of her suitcases again while Raphael took the other and they set off to where he had parked.

“I figured we could take the day to unwind at the house and then tomorrow I’ll take you to the museum. We just had a big gala event so it might be a bit quiet but I’m sure you’ll find something to keep you occupied quickly enough. You know, I just remembered, Diane just retired the other day, her department is still looking for a replacement if you’re interested to be over there.”

Marie was  _ very _ interested; Diane was responsible for the artifacts of the renaissance era which was Marie’s favorite subject in school. “That would be the most amazing thing in the history of the world.”

Raphael couldn’t help but chuckle at the theatrics, he would make arrangements once they got home. “Well then, let’s get on the road!” He looked around as they came upon the parking lot where the family car was waiting in one of the handicapped spots; a few years back Raphael had a bit of a nasty fall that left him with a bum knee and unable to walk far distances even with the old fashioned cane he walked with. 

When they reached the sedan, Marie claimed the passenger seat with her bag before heading around to the trunk to stash her suitcases while Peanut was put into the backseat though that didn’t stop the dog from trying to sneak upfront to give kisses. Once they were ready, they took off from the parking lot to start the long drive home.

“So, did I miss anything fun and exciting while I was buried in post-grad formalities?” Marie looked to her grandfather midbite of her breakfast sandwich while he drove.

“I got to spend a very long day at the doctor’s the other day” He paused to elaborate after he noticed the concerned look coming from his granddaughter “one of the lads in custodial missed a patch of water when he was wiping up the floor and I had a bit of a slip and fell on my knee but there wasn’t any damage. The doctors just like to take their sweet time telling me things.” 

“Sounds painful.” She winced at the thought of falling right on the knees, it wasn’t fun no matter one’s age.   
“Other than that, there hasn’t been too much excitement; work’s been keeping me busy and your grandmother’s been cooking like a madwoman. And I’m pretty sure that if I hadn’t left so early, she would’ve had me bring you some breakfast and then I would’ve had to keep Peanut from inhaling it.” He laughed.

Marie laughed with him before taking a sip of the sugary frappucino that he had gotten with her sandwich. “Yeah that sounds about right” she mused as she tore a small piece of bacon from her sandwich and flicked it into the backseat where it disappeared into Peanut’s hungry maw.

Laughter filled the car as it drove down the highway in the sunrise, heading for home and family.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So here's where the story really gets going, with the introduction of our leading lady Marie! I love her to bits and I hope you guys will too! :D
> 
> One thing I'd like to mention real quick is that all characters in this fic are original and mine, save for some later on.
> 
> And again I'd like to thank Dani, Syd, Matty, Alex, and Katie for their awesomeness and support, I'm very likely to just tag them in every chapter (Sorry but totally not sorry)


	3. Lost and Found

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> So Marie has settled into her dream job and all is good but there seems to be a mystery in her path...

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Just putting a note here for brief language and an instance of a spider for those who do not like them.
> 
> for anyone curious, the song Marie's listening to is "Ave Maria" by P!NK
> 
> Hope you guys enjoy! I'm looking forward to the next chapter to share with you all!

* * *

“... _Ave Maria...where did you go? Where did you go?”_ Marie absentmindedly sang with the song that was playing in her headphones as she worked on her latest project, her left foot keeping rhythm with the pop song while her right directed the rolling chair she had been sitting in for the past few hours. It had been nearly two months now since Marie came home from school and she had settled in nicely to the new job that she had been dreaming of ever since she was a teenager. Most days she would come into work and spend long hours either examining, restoring or cleaning the museum’s various artifacts to ensure they were still in as good condition as they could be; it was tedious but she loved it. While most would complain about the long hours, she rather enjoyed them; when the last person would call it a day, she’d put on some music to work with as she’d often lose herself in her little world, trying to get a feel for the long passed time these old relics came from and she often wondered about how many hands an artifact passed through before coming to them.

Her latest project was an old renaissance painting that had come into the museum within the last few days and it was one of her new favorites; a scenic landscape of a lush garden filled with roses as far as the eye could see and in the middle were some children; a pair of girls that appeared to be similar in age and an older boy, all of whom seemed to be playing a game. In the distance was a wooded area with some large trees, likely redwoods if the size of the trees were any indication.

“Let’s take a look at you.” She spoke to the painting as she gently wiped away the last of the solution she had been using to clear away the old grim and yellowed varnish. The painting itself was old so she had to work slowly as to not stress the picture further but she had already cleared away the yellowed varnish and it was clear to see that the painting looked practically brand new! The frame itself was in relatively good condition which was a little surprising, usually, most old paintings needed a new one; but this one had been likely stored somewhere safe despite the grim. She scooted back in her chair to admire her work, her head lightly bobbing to her rock music when she noticed the volume slowly lowering. Turning around, she discovered the source; Raphael was standing by her phone on the work table where it had been charging, his finger on the volume slider. “Hey, Papa, what’s up?” She took her headphones off.

“I wanted to see how you were doing” the older man smiled as he came to view her work “finished already?” He whistled impressed, he had heard of the work she had been putting into it but to see her first painting of this size was incredible. A proud smile came to him, it made him happy to know that she was thriving here.

“Thanks, I think this one is my new favorite.” She looked back to the painting; it wasn’t as fancy as some royal portrait she had seen over the years but it was very beautiful “I like the scenic ones.”

“You get that from me” Raphael chuckled again. “I also wanted to let you know, I’m wrapping up early today.” A nearby clock showed that it was only five in the afternoon. “Your grandmother and I were thinking of having a little night out but she’s coming to get me, that way you have the car whenever you’re done here.”

“Oh, okay! I still had a bit of work to do on this anyway.” It wasn’t the first time Marie pulled a long day and today was no exception. “I’ll just call you when I leave for the night.”

“Sounds like a plan to me, just be careful you don’t work too hard _Cher_.”

“I won’t, have fun Papa. I’ll see you both at home.” She smiled when he pressed a kiss to her temple and patted her shoulder before going to set the car keys by her phone, he even raised her music volume back up to where it had been though by now the songs had changed, she didn’t mind. Once she was alone again, Marie put her headphones back on before getting up to stretch for a bit after sitting in that chair for a long while. She had to take a few moments as her legs had all but fallen asleep but as she did, her eyes were once again settled on the painting. Despite its large size, she was able to notice some of the finer details; such as the fact that many colors were running through the garden that it almost looked like a rainbow of roses. There were the usual standard colors and some mixed color ones as well. She took a step closer to look at the painted children where the artist took great care to paint the happy and carefree expressions of the children and the pigtails on the girls that were bobbing with each step they took; it had been a delightful surprise to find the children as they had been nearly hidden under layers of grime and old varnish. The artist had considerable skill as evident by the way they caught the pure joy from the children playing and the way each child was lovingly painted, from the gold and chestnut brown locks of the girls to the black curls on the young man playing with them. As she went over her work, the volume in Marie’s headphones dimmed once more as a call popped up on her phone, the device vibrating softly against the hard table as she double-tapped her earbuds. “Hello?” she answered as she popped something between her shoulders.

“Hey Marie, it’s Alex, you still in the office?” It was Alexandre; one of the few who worked in the museum that was in her age group that often brought her new things to look at.

“Yeah, I’m still here” She took a moment to stretch, her spine popping a little loudly as she turned her back a few times.

“Are you and your grandfather made out of bubble wrap or something because I swear, he makes sounds like that too and quite frankly it scares me.”

“Did you need something Alex?”

“Right sorry. I’m over at the house where we found that painting and the other stuff, anyway, the safety crew cleared the rest house and we figured you might want to come to check it out. Put the brain to work and all that?”

Marie thought for a moment; she had been at work for quite some time already but the opportunity to walk through an excavation site and check for new finds was always exciting. “Yeah, give me the location and some time to put this piece away.”

“Awesome, we’ll keep off until you get here!” With that, he hung up and the music resumed where it had left off.

To say that Marie was excited was an understatement; it wasn’t very often yet that she got the chance to go to the excavation site, she was still a “little too new” and that she just had artifacts brought to her. After putting the painting away properly and clearing off her brushes, she grabbed her phone and keys and a field kit she’d need before locking up and raced down the hall where she almost bumped into one of the guards.

“Heading home for the day, Miss Benoit?” He caught her from falling onto the ground

“Not yet...Victor?” She was still learning a few people's names. It didn’t help that he was one of five guards that walked this area. Or was it six?

He nodded.

“I’ll be back in a bit. Have a nice night, sorry for almost bumping into you.” She apologized.

“Think nothing of it, Miss Benoit. Safe travels.” He waved her off as he watched her leave.

She continued down the hall, the heels of her boots echoed on the marble floors with each hurried step which grew even faster as she approached the elevator. “Come on, come on.” She pleaded as she was getting antsy with excitement while the floor number slowly counted up. While she waited, she dug out her phone to text her grandpa.

_‘Got a call from Alex, going to check out the latest site. Be home later <3’ _

The elevator finally dinged as it reached her floor and she quickly stepped inside the empty car before hitting the button for the employee parking level. The descent was just as slow as the way up, which drove Marie crazy as she just wanted to leave “Oh come on!” She whined as the elevator eventually came to a slow stop a few floors down and the door opened to let in some passengers. A few going to a few different floors. _GREAT._

By the time Marie got to the parking garage, she practically ran to her grandfather’s parking spot where his car was waiting for her. As she climbed in, her phone buzzed repeatedly with messages from her grandfather and from Alex; the former telling her to be careful and have fun, to call him if she needed while the latter gave her the location and to tell her that they had parked a small distance from the grounds.

It was pouring down rain as Marie left the parking lot and turned out to the direction she needed to go according to her phone’s GPS; this is what her grandfather meant by ‘be careful’, he knew she was afraid of thunder though so far she hadn’t heard any. As she drove, she couldn’t help but wonder what they might find; would it be some lost treasure or something left behind by whoever once lived there? She wondered what condition the house and the grounds were in considering that the rose painting had been so dirty from years of grime and neglect.

After roughly an hour on the road and taking the wrong turn once or twice, Marie pulled up onto an old dirt road that led into what looked like a small wooded area. “Is this the right place?” She was doubtful as she looked to her phone, the arrow directing her just a little bit further down the road. The rain had stopped a while ago and she was able to see a few different tire tracks in the fresh mud, so maybe her GPS was telling the truth for once. With only one way to find out, Marie slowly drove down the muddy trail to follow the directions she was sent and within minutes she came upon a gathering of her coworker’s cars where they were all waiting for her. When she opened the door, a cold winter’s breeze was quick to enter so she zipped on her coat before getting out.

“Hey, you made it!” Alex waved to her once she got out of the car with her kit and gear. “Hope you’re ready to do some exploring!” His enthusiasm nearly matched hers and it was nice to know she wasn’t alone.

“Sorry if I kept you guys waiting, I got a little lost.” She chuckled sheepishly as they began the trek to the house.

“You should’ve seen Alex his first time out here, he got so ridiculously lost that we had to go hunt him down and have him follow us.” A chuckle came from Pierre and his brother Louis. They were usually the ones bringing the heavier artifacts to the museum, they liked to be referred to as “the muscles”. They were a fair bit older, likely their late 30s if Marie had to guess.

“Says the clowns who gave me the directions.” A small blush came to the young man’s face as they walked.

“Yeah well, next time you’ll remember to put up your map.” Louis quipped right back.

Their bantering made Marie chuckle a little, she hadn’t really had many chances to hang out much with others at work since she was still settling into the job. Alex could be considered a friend from the fact that they frequently chatted on the job since they worked in the same department.

“-earth to Marie?” Alex lightly poked her arm to draw her out of her thoughts.

“Hmm? Sorry I was thinking.”

“It’s okay, I was just asking how that painting was going?”

“Oh! It’s coming great, I was able to get the portrait cleaned and there were these children hidden away in the roses under the grime, I hope to-” Marie’s thoughts came to a screeching halt as they came upon the clearing.

Sitting on the opposite side of the clearing was a large manor that was covered in climbing vines and ivy that had likely protected it from the worst of the ravages of time, the house barely looked more than 100 years old though, from the grime collected on the painting, it had to have been older than that. What truly caught her attention was the sprawling field of wild roses that ran free from the front of the house all the way around to its side. A massive wave of Deja Vu came over her as she stepped away from the group and toward the rose field. It looked so familiar to her yet she couldn’t quite put her finger on why, at least, not until she stood in front of the porch of the manor.

“It was painted here.” She whispered to herself.

“What’s that Mari?” Alex came up beside her, barely catching what she had said.

“The painting, the one I'm working on, it was painted here.” She stepped closer to the flowers. “In the painting, the roses were controlled and manicured, these must be the descendant plants; they’re wild now, probably because no one’s tended to them in years.” She put her thumbs together to frame the scene in her head, taking a few steps back until the flowers and redwoods were in view.

“How can you tell they’re wild?” Loius looked to her curiously, they just looked like roses to him.

“My uncle’s a florist. I once spent a summer working for him and we often talk about wild-grown flowers.” She shrugged as she admired the wild roses though as she did, she couldn’t help but wonder about who grew them; the ones in the painting had been lovingly arranged when planting so clearly someone put a lot of love into this menagerie of blooms. Her thoughts were interrupted as she heard Pierre unlocking the house and gently pushed the door in, the squeaking hinges loudly announcing their presence.

“Ladies first.” He offered to Marie who took the invitation. “The first floor’s been documented and cleared out so that leaves us with the second floor and the attic, all of which have already been cleared by the safety crew.”

“How do you want to divide and conquer?” Alexandre looked to Marie who seemed to be surprised that the question was directed to her.

“Hmm” Marie glanced up to the stairs that led to the second floor. “I say, you three take the second floor, I can take the attic?”

The three men looked to one another before nodding in agreement; given the size of the manor, it would take more people to search the second floor than it would the attic.

“Keep your radios on.” Pierre handed Marie a walkie-talkie before they all walked up the stairs together though they made sure to take care to not put too much strain on the old steps

Once at the top of the stairs, the group split off with Pierre and Louis taking the rooms on the left side of the hall which left Alexandre alone with Marie.

“I think the way to the attic was one of these doors” He opened a nearby door which turned out to have been a closet or something given its tiny space “nope, not that one.” He chuckled shyly before checking another door just a few feet away and was greeted by the sight of more stairs leading to another door “Here it is-

“Hey guys, have any of you seen a light switch anywhere?!” Pierre poked his head out of the room he had picked only to find that it was a little hard to see now that the sun was starting to go down.

“None in here either!” Louis called from his room, he had been using the flashlight on his phone.

“I think I’ve got some portable lights in my car, let me go see.” Alex moved away from Marie to head back downstairs, leaving her alone in the hall with the attic stairs.

“Hmm.” Marie pondered her options for a moment as she pulled her phone from her pocket. “Full battery.” She smiled to herself and turned on the flashlight before ascending up the stairs. When she reached the door, it made an unholy squeaking noise and fought against opening due to overly rusted hinges, the sound of which grated against her ears and sent a shiver down her spine. It took a little pressure but the door gave way and opened, only to present with a new problem; cobwebs were everywhere in the stuffy attic, cobwebs meant spiders. “Freaking _perfect_.” Marie groaned as she scanned the nearby floor and walls for any eight-legged demons.

To her disappointment, the attic was mostly empty; aside from an old mirror, a wire cage mannequin and a few old sheets strewn about the ground, there wasn’t much to be excited about. She could still take these back to the museum to examine them so she wouldn’t be empty-handed, it was better than nothing. While she didn’t see more from where she was standing, she decided to take a slow lap around the attic while shining her light on everything to make sure nothing was missed.

There, tucked away in a far corner and covered by an old sheet, Marie found _something_. The shape made her think of a box or maybe a chest as she shined the light on it as she approached to investigate. When she reached for the sheet covering the object, she was greeted by a small plume of dust and cobweb which made her cough a little before she yanked it away, filling the air around her with more dust but at least the object was visible now.

When the dust settled and her lungs could breathe a little easier, Marie gazed upon the box, her eyes going wide at her discovery.

A blood-curdling scream rang down from the attic and throughout the house, alerting not only the pair of brothers but young Alex, who was nearly halfway back with the lights and broke into a run back to the house. As he stepped into the house, he saw Pierre vanishing up the attic stairs after his brother before rushing up after them.

“MARIE?!” The three of them yelled for her as they entered the attic, where the young woman was on the ground shaking, her flashlight shining on some sort of chest and a rather large tarantula that was none too pleased about having its nap disturbed.

“B-B-Big-” She stammered as she scooted away from the chest, away from the angry arachnid.

Moving past his terrified coworker, Alex picked up the sheet that had been discarded by the box and managed to corral the tarantula into a makeshift “nest” before closing the sheet around it and he took the spider outside where it couldn’t bother anybody, well, maybe a few insects. “It’s okay Marie, the big guy’s gone!” he called up to the house as he went back inside to rejoin the others.

“I hate spiders so much.” Marie shuddered as she brushed some dust and cobwebs off of her person, shuddering as she cleared her hands.

“You missed a spot.” Pierre cleared a small section of cobweb out of her hair for her.

“Did you find anything before you made a new little friend?” Louis lightly teased as he picked up her phone for her though he took a moment to dust it off and found it without a crack on the screen.

“Just some old sheets and a mirror. And this.” She turned back to the chest as she reached into her bag for her gloves. “Alex, can you shine one of the lights on this? Please.”

Alex nodded as he powered up one of the portable lights and shone it on the chest, a slight frown coming to his features “is it just me or does it look older than this house?”

The others turned their full attention onto the chest and noticed what he meant; while the wood was smooth under a gloved hand, the wood was terribly discolored and the entirety of the metal that decorated the top and sides of the chest was one solid rust color. Was it possible that the chest had just changed hands over the years and no one had cared for it? If so, then why was it abandoned here in a house with no lights or any sort of modern utilities?

“I want to take this back.”

“Marie?” Alex looked to her curiously; technically she was in charge of this little ‘expedition’ so he wasn’t sure if he had heard correctly.

“I want to check this thing out. Let’s take it back to the museum along with everything else we can find.” Marie instructed them as she took a picture of the chest with her cellphone for her grandfather. “Let’s just leave it up here for now and we’ll grab it before we leave?” She looked to them for approval and smiled when they nodded in agreement with her suggestion.

Once on the same plan, the group each grabbed a portable light before descending down the stairs to check through the remaining rooms. Unfortunately, the rooms were essentially as empty as the attic above them; an empty dresser or crumbling bed frame, in one room, a crumbling stuffed toy dog was left, forgotten, in a corner. They found a few more small spiders, much to Marie’s displeasure but nothing of note. So, once their search was done, the mirror and dressers, as well as the remnants of the stuffed toy, were loaded up into the truck that Pierre and Louis drove as well as the sheets that had once covered them, leaving just the chest in the attic.

“Please, be careful guys, I’d hate for you to get tetanus or something.” Marie was wary of the metal finishing on the chest. “Ready? On three then; one...two..three!”

They all lifted the chest together; the chest itself weighed roughly in the twenty-pound range but with such an incredible find, they didn’t want to take any risk of it slipping and potentially breaking it or anything inside. They all moved slowly toward the door when Alex loosened his grasp on the chest to illuminate the steps beneath them when he realized they had a small problem; the stairway was too narrow for them all to go down together, so a group lift became a paired lift, with Marie on one end and Pierre on the other.

“You sure you don’t want to switch ‘Boss’? Louis looked to Marie as she held up her end.

“I’ve got it, but thank you, Louis.” She smiled gratefully to him and watched as he slipped past her and stood right in her shadow with a respectful hand on her upper back.

“You’re good, guys, come on down.” Alex called to the pair, giving them a thumbs up and the all-clear to descend.

“Nice and easy Marie, nice and easy.” She spoke to herself as she made sure her grip was steady and craned her head to watch her feet as she took a step back, though with Louis guiding her down with his free hand on the railing, there was little chance of them slipping.

Step by step, the trio slowly cleared each step until they came down to the second-floor landing where they set the chest down gently to massage any strain out of their hands. They rested for a minute before Marie took hold of the chest once again but this time, Louis took his brother’s place while Pierre would guide them down, leaving Alex to once again light the path.

“I think when we get to the bottom,” Pierre piped up from behind Marie, “given that the ground leading to the cars is a little uneven, Louis and I should do the heavy lifting?”

Marie thought for a second; truthfully she could use a break, her arms were starting to feel like a little like jelly. “Okay, that sounds like a good idea. Plus, knowing me, I’m surprised I haven’t twisted anything yet. Knock on wood.” She gently knocked on the nearby oaken banister of the staircase for superstition.

“I’m ready whenever you are.” Louis prepared himself to lift up the box and with a second count to three, the pair lifted up the chest before heading downstairs though they took care to really go slow since stairs between the first and second floors were longer than those separating the second floor and the attic.

“Easy...easy.” Pierre kept one hand on Marie and one hand on the chest as a stair groaned a little too loud for everyone’s liking, prompting them to pick up their pace just a little bit; the last thing that any of them needed was for a step to collapse under their feet though it seemed to be a possibility as the old wood groaned some more, this time a little louder and with more urgency. “Come on, let’s get moving!”

In their efforts to move off the stairs faster to avoid the wood giving out under them, just as they came upon the last steps, Louis misstepped and ended up slipping on his butt though thankfully he was strong enough to keep the chest from slipping and hurting him further.

“Louis!” Everyone rushed to the man’s aid, Marie and Alex grabbing the chest to move it off the stairs while Pierre tried to slowly remove his brother from the stairs and judging from the man’s face, something was at the very likely bruised.

“For fuck’s sake, I’m too old to be falling on my ass like this.” The injured Louis swore as he slowly stood, a pained wince crossed his face with even the tiniest steps he could take in an attempt to move away from the stairs.

It was clear that he’d be unable to carry the chest back to the cars or even up into the museum once they got back.

“Who drove the big truck here?” Marie looked to her coworkers; Louis needed to get that injury looked at and it wasn’t really fair to make him drive himself to an urgent care clinic.

“Alex and I did.” Pierre offered, he saw what Marie was doing and he appreciated it.

The younger man nodded, he could drive it no problem while Pierre took Louis home.

“Great; Louis, you go get checked out, we can fill out an incident report when you get back-”  
“Oh goody, my _favorite_.” He groaned lightly, oh the joys of paperwork.

“Alex, help me carry this thing.” She handed her light to the brothers before taking hold of the chest with Alex on the other side.

Together, the younger pair picked it up and carried it out, stopping for a brief moment for the house to get locked up once again. The path was illuminated for them by the many lights held by the brothers, they needed to be careful but also quick; the sun was gone now and visibility was becoming nonexistent, it would be far too easy to trip now. As they passed by the wild roses once again, a strange feeling of familiarity and longing came over to Marie as one of the lights shone on them but she didn’t have time to ponder the strange feeling, not when they had more work to do. With Louis injured, the walk back felt like it had taken twice as long but soon the sight of the Benoit family car came into view.

“Let’s put this in the trunk, that way you don’t have to haul _everything_. Plus I’m closer.” She offered, shifting the weight of the chest into one hand so she could use her free one to unlock the trunk, the lid popping open and Pierre held it open for them. Thankfully the trunk was empty so that there would be plenty of space.

“Yes please.” Alex’s arms were about to turn into jelly. If it meant setting this heavy chest down, he’d do anything she wanted to do.

-”On three- One..two..-”

“Three!” Alex counted with her as they lifted the chest into the trunk, a tiny groan coming from the car as the new weight was introduced but it settled nicely.

They had managed to set it into a cozy corner of the trunk behind the wheel but there was one thing they still had to do.

“Are there any more bungee cords in the truck? I don’t want this thing moving an inch on the way back.” Marie looked to her companions as she secured the chest; she only had three in the trunk which would have normally been more than enough but given the fact that the chest was both old and on wheels, she wanted to be extra careful that it wouldn’t budge.

“Should be, let me check.” Alex ran over to the truck with his light; they had used most of what they had when they secured the big stuff but fortunately, there were still a pair of bungee cords still hanging up for use. “This is all we have left!” He called out to Marie as he brought the cords over.

“Hopefully it’ll be enough for now.” She took the cords once he handed them over and finished securing the chest in place. “There, that should do it, now for the true test” she slowly lowered the lid of the trunk, silently praying that the door would close without damaging the chest.

After a few torturous moments, the door to the trunk closed with a soft but satisfying ‘click’, it seemed that her prayers were heard after all. Everyone released a sigh of relief that they hadn’t realized they were holding in.

“Okay, Alex and I can take these back. Loius, I hope you feel better.”

“It’s probably just a bruise but thank you, I appreciate it. Don’t get lost, you two.” He waved to the pair as he and his brother got into the car to leave.

As she watched the brothers leave, Marie’s attention was drawn back to the path that led to the house as that strange feeling came back over her and for the life of her she couldn’t figure out why; she didn’t understand why she was having these feelings of familiarity and longing or why she felt this new sense of melancholy, only that it had settled over her like a heavy blanket.

“Earth to space cadet Marie? Can you hear us?” Alex lightly teased as he tried bringing his coworker back down from the clouds she was in.

“Huh?”  
“Are you okay? You keep drifting off into space.” Alex raised a brow at her, the few times he’s worked with her, he didn’t know her to be so prone to daydreaming.

“I was just thinking; that house was once someone’s home, it makes me wonder what kind of people lived here before it was abandoned or why did they abandon this place? Think about it, the house itself was relatively wasn’t that old yet it was modeled to look like something out of the 14th century! I mean, the only people I know would do that would be like a hardcore history fanatic, maybe an old reenactor who got way too methodical; who knows for sure, but isn’t it exciting to be able to find out?” This was one of her favorite parts of the job, finding old artifacts and then learning the history from them so that the future could possibly benefit.

“Well then what are we standing around for?” Alex liked her enthusiasm but then again, she wouldn’t be where she was if she wasn’t passionate about her work. “Let’s get going and get these back so you can have a crack at them.” He joked before heading into his truck, the sound of the engine starting cut through the silence of the woods.

“Lead the way, I’ll follow you this time.” She didn’t want to get lost, not when she had important cargo in the truck.

And so, the pair got into their respective vehicles, leaving the forest and the strange house behind though as she began driving away, she noticed the feeling still clung to her. For now, she tried to ignore it as heavy rain clouds overhead rumbled once again with the threat of another deluge and instead kept her eyes and attention on the truck in front of her as she and Alex raced against time and the weather.


	4. A Surprise

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> We finally get to see what's in the box! :D

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So this chapter, first of all, is much longer than the previous ones. For which I apologize but at the same time, it's a bit of a necessary evil as we really get the story started here. It feels so good to finally be able to publish this one; I had this mostly finished months ago but was unable to find time to publish and edit due to my job as an essential worker. But, now I'm making time so here we are with this very overdue update! 
> 
> I would also very much like to add: This story is more or less to a companion piece to a comic a very dear friend of mine is currently doing! Go give her story some love and check out her comic here! https://www.webtoons.com/en/challenge/the-ring-of-roses/list?title_no=383194 (one of the characters is mentioned here in this very chapter!) (I don't know how to neatly embed links, I'll fix it when I learn how sorry!)
> 
> *^*^*^*^*^*^*^*^*^*^*^*^*^

The drive back to the museum was uneventful as no one had gotten lost and they pulled into the garage without issue. Thankfully they had managed to outrun the rain just as the first drops were falling from the heavens. The downpour caught the back window of Marie’s car and Alex’s car behind her as the guard on duty waved them through, the sound of rain echoing through the garage as the two cars pulled up to the freight elevator. 

“Man, talk about some nasty weather, huh Marie?” Alex looked outside to watch the rain as Marie got out of her car. He looked back to her as she nodded in agreement, noticing as she gazed out to watch the rain for a moment.

“Yeah, no kidding.” Marie stared outside for a few moments before coming back to reality. “Let’s get some help moving these up into storage for now.”  
“You’re not going to examine them right away?” After all that, he would’ve thought that she’d want to examine her finds the moment they returned. The fact that she wasn’t running upstairs at Mach speed was surprising to him. 

“If there’s time, maybe; if I get started now, I might get too excited and stay all night. And I have a feeling if I did, cranky old Ines would start on one of her ‘You young people today!’ tirades. I don’t think I’ll be very disappointed when she retires.”

Alex couldn’t help but laugh at the statement, he also knew what it felt like to be on the receiving end of those lectures. “She is rather infamous for that.” He thought aloud as he opened the back rolling door of the truck while Marie popped open the trunk. “Which do you want going up first Doc? Heavy furniture or heavy box?” 

“Heavy box. That way we can make sure there’s actual room for the heavy furniture and we can get some extra hands on the way back down.

He gave a thumbs up and proceeded to unhook the various bungee cords, as he did, he could hear her walking off toward the elevator only to come back a few moments later with a dolly.

Together, the two carefully loaded and secured the chest to the hand truck before heading to the freight elevator, which Marie hit the call button after unlocking it with her badge.   
As the badge snapped back on its cord, it caught Alex’s eye.

“Hey, there’s been something I’ve been meaning to ask you- just  _ where _ did you get that keychain?”

The keychain in question was a silly novelty keychain that Marie kept on her I.D badge. It was a miniaturized portrait of the Mona Lisa. With  _ googly eyes _ . Any step Marie took made the eyes bounce around, it was rather entertaining.

The question made Marie chuckle, she’s lost track of how many times she’s heard that question and it made her laugh every time. “It was a gift actually. My cousin Tony got it for me when I graduated from university. I laughed so hard when he got it for me, though not as hard as I did when he saw  _ my _ graduation present to him.” 

“What was that?”

“Did you ever have one of those toy doctor sets as a kid?” She couldn’t help the giggles that were bubbling to the surface.

“Not really, no. Why?” He raised a brow, curious as to where she was going with this story.   
“My cousin is a  _ surgeon. _ ” Marie lost her fight with her laughter and Alex got a few good chuckles in as well. 

“Oh damn, that’s savage.” He couldn’t help the big laugh that escaped him. “Well done.” He praised as the elevator opened and they were able to wheel the hand truck inside.    
“That’s nothing; his friend at work got him a ‘world’s okayest surgeon mug’ and I thought I was going to die laughing when she showed it to me.”

The elevator groaned a tad at the new weight but the metal quickly settled as it slowly started climbing up toward the desired level after Marie pushed the button while Alex kept a hold on the dolly. Thankfully this elevator didn’t play some cheap music as the others did but it did leave a tangible silence between the pair.

“Can I ask you something else?” Alex asked as he watched the floor numbers slowly rise, his peripheral vision settling on his coworker who had dug out her phone and started texting.

“Hmm?” 

“What made you want to do this?” 

Marie looked up from her phone and her fingers slowly paused as her thoughts shifted to his question. Aside from her family, he was kind of the first to really ask why. “Well” she started to explain as the doors to the elevator opened with a loud ‘ _ DING! _ ’ and the pair stepped out into the empty hall “when I was younger, my grandfather would bring me here a lot because of something that needed to be done. But, after he was done with the work, he’d take me to walk through the exhibits and he’d tell all these great stories about each piece. The way he spoke, I often felt like I was walking back in time with him. And back then, given that my nose was usually in one book or another, it seemed like a dream to be able to learn about such treasures and tell their stories.” A rather adorable blush came to her cheeks while she admitted this as they came up to the lab, the door opening after a swipe from Marie’s badge.

“Makes sense, I mean, your grandfather’s known around here for telling stories.” Alex nodded slightly in thought as he wheeled in the chest into the lab for her. “Where do you want this?” 

“Big table please, I’ve decided to ignore my good decisions and crack this thing open. I’ll just pretend I can’t understand Ines when she scolds me in the morning. Want to join?” She offered as she stepped over to the rack where her lab coat was barely hanging onto the hook where she had left it in her haste.

Alex looked to his watch and grimaced slightly, when did it get so late? “As much as I would love to, I promised my brothers that I’d come to our parent’s ‘New Year/ anniversary dinner.”  
“Okay.” Marie half shrugged, if he had family plans then he was busy. “Just have someone go get the other stuff and put it into secondary storage.”

“You sure?” He raised a brow in slight surprise, he’d thought she’d want him to stay and help with the project or at least keep company so she wouldn’t be here alone.  
“Alex, you’ve been here since 8 this morning and you’ve got family plans. I’ll be fine, you have fun.” She waved him away with one hand while she dug out her laptop from her bag. She watched him leave, the sound of the door echoing rather loudly in the empty room, before opening up her laptop and grabbed a video camera and small tripod from another room so she could set up and record properly. ‘ _Might be a little late tonight, I want to check out this chest we found_.’ Marie dug out her phone to finish her text she had started in the elevator. Despite her excitement, she didn’t want her grandparents to worry.

‘ _ Hahaha, okay, don’t be too late _ .’ The response read followed by a thumbs up. The typing bubble popped up for several moments, entrancing Marie until the phone vibrated with the latest message. ‘If we’re asleep by the time you get home, we brought you some dinner back.’

Digging out a hair clip, Marie pulled her hair back and up before turning on her various equipment as she got ready; hair secured, hands washed and the latex gloves slipped on with a hard snap. It didn’t feel as official if she didn’t snap the gloves. “And...Action” She joked slightly as she pressed a button on her computer, a small red light coming to both the device and the camera hooked up to it. “Okay timestamp; December 29th, 7:43 p.m.” She took the camera off the tripod so she could circle around the chest with it “Today, between the hours of six and seven o’clock, I was called to the previous site where several paintings and items of interest were discovered. We’re unofficially calling it the ‘Forest Manor’ site, very creative, I know. Anyways, we were able to reach the second floor of the manor home and within the attic, we discovered this old trunk as well as some more furniture; an empty dresser and a standing mirror, as well as some very musty sheets. These were all that was left.” She zoomed in on the chest “From initial observations, the chest is crafted to resemble those of the Old Middle Ages; the design of the chest and the welding of the metal is rather simplistic. Despite its Medieval aesthetic, I do believe it to be a reproduction because of the generally good condition of said wood and metal.” With a tender touch, she ran her hand along the lid of the trunk though she stopped when her fingers brushed against the keyhole which made her frown. They hadn’t found a key anywhere in the house, which complicated things a bit. She looked to the table only to realize that she had forgotten her toolkit. With a sigh, she placed the camera back onto its tripod. “Pausing the video to retrieve one forgotten toolkit. Way to go Marie.” 

Once the camera was safely settled, she carefully removed her gloves and walked over to her bag. As per the regulations of the lab, all bags had to be stored in small lockers, which is where she had stashed hers; Marie was a little grateful that she was alone, this wasn’t the first time she had forgotten her toolkit in her workbag but remembered everything else. At least Ines wasn’t here this time to tease her about it. It took her a moment to find it as it was slightly buried under her other possessions but soon it was within her grasp and she rushed back to the table.

“Alrighty, let’s try this again” she hummed to herself as she resumed recording. “A key was not recovered at the site location but that’s easily fixed.” As she informed the camera, Marie placed a hand on the lid and unrolled her toolkit but found that something was amiss; she could’ve sworn the trunk was locked up tight given that it had shown no signs of being so otherwise, yet when she placed her hand on the lid, she found that it moved under her touch. Moving her hand away from her toolkit and onto the lid, she found that she was able to open the trunk completely. “It seems the lockpick is not needed, after all, the trunk was left unlocked.” She noted as she raised a brow. “Let’s see who this belongs to and what they left for us to find.”

The inside of the trunk was neatly organized, it almost reminded her of her grandmother’s organization; in one corner were some books stacked in accordance with the size and an assortment of rolled up pieces of parchments that were tied by various colored ribbons. They were being held in place by two boxes, one short but decently tall and the other, long and case-like.

_ ‘Perhaps I should’ve waited.’ _ Marie thought to herself as she carefully moved the camera and it’s tripod closer to the chest, angling it so that it could see inside while she examined the items. “It seems to be almost like a time capsule; everything in this chest, by my initial observations, seems to be from the same time period. It’s very exciting to see so many pieces in one place in seemingly good condition, the trunk has protected its contents from the ravages of time and the elements.” Marie couldn’t help the smile that came to her lips. Very carefully, she removed the top book from its stack and noticed a red ribbon sticking out from one of its pages near the end of the book. “This appears to be a diary, the handwriting is quite beautiful” she delicately turned a few pages to find a date “No signs of a date on the pages, which are likely vellum, but I see mentions of a few names; ‘Josie’, ‘Cadie’, ‘Luci’ and ‘Ari’ “ she noted as she flipped through a few of the pages “later I’ll make a reference of all these names. There’s another name on this page, “Basil”; the entry reads  _ ‘Basil surprised his mother and sister with flowers from Ari’s garden today. The looks on their faces lit up the entire room’ _ . Awww, that’s adorable.” Marie couldn’t help fawning over the sweetness of the entry before setting the book gently down onto the clean table. She picked up two other books in the pile and flipped through their pages but curiously they weren’t both diaries, one was but the other seemed to be a fictional fairytale about a dragon and treasure.

Though she was eager to examine everything, examination protocol had to be followed so it might as well start with the books. One by one every book and scroll were carefully taken out of the chest and laid out on the table following their arrangement going from biggest to smallest. All of the scrolls were bound by a ribbon but some had ribbons of red, a few blue and yellow. All in all, there were only 6 books and 10 scrolls but each page had to be photographed so they could be read without damaging the books themselves.   
“Let the fun begin” Marie mused as she put in her earbuds just so that she’d have something to listen to while photographing all these pages. 

For over two hours Marie painstakingly took pictures of every page of every book, each picture was also being downloaded to her tablet so she could read them later; a further incentive to make sure her pictures were perfect.

“Judging from some of these pages” Marie spoke as she paused her music “it seems our mystery friend fancied themselves a writer. I can’t wait to actually read these.” Marie remarked as she finished taking pictures and checked her camera. “Little more than half battery left; Grandfather wasn’t kidding when he mentioned getting better cameras.” She thought aloud, though she was alone, she was still recording so she referred to her grandfather more formally. Plus, she’d likely be the one editing the tape anyway so it didn’t really matter. As she gazed to the opened chest with a cat-like grin. With a turn back to the chest, she peered inside to see what would be the next thing she wanted to examine before her eyes came upon the long box stored neatly along the length of the chest. “I’ll get a second opinion but the wood seems to be very nice cherrywood; the wood feels dense enough and the dark color seems about right. The object itself is a long, rectangular…not very heavy...” she stopped for a moment as her hands brushed over a crude latch “case. It appears to be roughly 20 inches long, roughly 14 inches wide, good condition…” Her voice tapered off as the wheels in her head were turning “The case has not been opened and yet I bet 10 Euros that there’s a violin in here. Or at least some sort of stringed instrument.” 

Just before the case was set down on the table, something brushed along Marie’s gloved hand, causing the young woman to take the case back up and turn it over.

In a fancy hand, there was one word carved into the bottom of the case: 

‘ _ Cereza’ _

“Cereza...Cereza.” Marie had to think for a moment but she couldn’t place the language, she only knew that it obviously wasn’t French or English. She set the case down once more and woke up her laptop for a translation. “Cherry, it’s Spanish for Cherry. Nice job genius.” Marie lightly scolded herself as she recalled her foreign language classes from her days in school. Now that she had solved that mystery, it was time to see what was inside. 

Very,  _ very, _ carefully, the case was set back down onto the table and the latch was slowly undone which allowed for the lid to be opened.

“I love being right” Marie smirked to the camera. “Such a shame there’s no one here to give me money though.” A chuckle was recorded onto the camera as she very carefully removed a violin that looked incredibly old and simple yet still quite beautiful. She couldn’t figure out the wood used but she could find out once she got that second opinion on the chest. “As suspected, it was indeed a violin, and further speculation will say that it belonged to this ‘Cereza’; whoever they were, I can see that this must’ve been a very well cared for instrument. The wood looks well cared for, despite its age, I’ll get an opinion on it as well.” She noted as she handled the violin very carefully with delicate hands, “to think of the music it once played” Marie nearly started daydreaming of gentle tunes being played in warm summers but thankfully she was able to snap herself back to reality. “That’s strange,” She pondered aloud, “there’s no bow.” it was noted as she gently felt about the inside of the case but felt nothing hidden. “Such a shame, it’s like an incomplete masterpiece. I wonder what happened to the bow given that it’s not here; the first thing most players, myself included, are taught is to always have instrument and bow stored together.” It was another mystery to add to her list.

Meticulous pictures were taken of the instrument and its case as well as the engraved name in the wood, every little detail was photographed and recorded. Mental notes were again made to verify the type of woods so she could put them in the report as well. After documenting the items, Marie’s attention was turned to the remaining bundle in the chest; a rectangular object wrapped in a delicate swatch of silk fabric that stood if one were to guess, about ten inches tall. 

When she removed the silk wrapping, she found that the object was what appeared to be a jewelry box judging from the little drawers and the decorative rose engravings on the side and top of the little chest. The chest itself was made out of fine mahogany and seems to have been professionally made as the details of the engravings and construction appeared to have been finely crafted. “I wonder if this belonged to ‘Cereza’ too?” Marie pondered to herself as she continued to examine and take pictures. 

One by one, the drawers were carefully removed from the body and, much to Marie’s great surprise, there were still pieces of jewelry tucked away; a few bracelets, both metal and handwoven, a couple of rings, all of them mostly plainly designed metal with a few jewels but there was something that caught Marie’s attention. Sitting tucked away in the largest of the drawers was a small cloth bag, obviously whatever was inside must’ve been important if the owner separated them from everything else.

“Well now, what have we have here?” Marie hummed to herself as she picked up the bundle, it had a considerable bit of weight in her hand and felt like more than one item was within. She gently set it onto the table and untied the bag so she could start to examine it but as she pulled the bag open, the lights around her began to flicker unexpectedly, drawing her attention to the overhead lights.

The lights flickered once or twice more before settling though parts of the bulb still seemed to twitch with uncertainty.

“Hmmm. Note to self: have maintenance look at the lights in here. And maybe call a priest because that was a bit too spooky for my liking.” She shuddered as she turned her attention back to the cloth bag. Very carefully she reached in and pulled out what appeared to be some type of pendant with a rosary wrapped around it. 

That in and of itself was odd but what was even odder was the fact that when she reached back into the bag, she pulled out the exact same thing! She might’ve thought she was going mad until she noticed that one rosary had delicate rose quartz crystals and handpainted beads while the other had the deepest and most strikingly deep blue sapphires that Marie had ever seen. She had never seen a more gorgeous blue before. The metal of the rosaries needed a bit of some polish though not nearly as badly as the pendants they were wrapped around. She took the pendant with the sapphire rosary into her hands and simply admired it for a minute, there was a design on the front but the metal was so badly discolored that she couldn’t make out what it was. With a delicate hand, she unwrapped the rosary and felt more of the pendant in her hand to find a crease in the metal; it wasn’t a pendant like she thought but a locket. With a bit of gentle pressure on the crease, the locket came open with a minor squeak from the hinge.

“My God…” Marie was speechless at what she saw; on the inside of the locket was a small piece of clouded glass but on the other side, she was able to faintly make out a small family portrait but the portrait was so perfectly preserved that she had yet to see anything like it. “This is incredible” She exhaled excitedly, showing the locket to the camera “to see such preservation, I’m finding myself speechless!” She gently showed it off to the camera before setting the locket down on the table so she could examine the other one. “This one too!” Marie looked back up to the camera as she held up the second locket, the young woman practically bubbling with enthusiasm “Both lockets hold family portraits, it’s my assumption that they both belonged to members of one family; it’s hard to see now but two of the figures seem to bear similar features.” It was an assumption for now given that Marie had to squint hard to try and make out the faces in the portraits through the discolored glass. “I think my first priority will be to clean these up; to be so carefully stored, these trinkets must’ve been so dearly beloved by whoever owned them. Maybe it’ll even give us clues on who owned all of these items.” She theorized as she set the second locket back down next to the first with some reluctance; she wanted to spend more time with the lockets but now that the trunk was empty, she had to take photos of the inside of it like she had done when it was full. 

As she took pictures from various angles, something caught her eye when the flash of the camera bounced off the underside of the lid. 

“ ‘Cerise?’ What’s up with the different words for cherry?” She found it very odd but decided to put it on the back burner for now; this was all one big puzzle and soon she’d get to see the picture but first, she had to set out all the pieces.

Soon every possible picture she could have taken was captured and was in the process of being downloaded; it was late but excitement clung to the air like a thick fog and instead of packing up entirely, or at all, Marie moved the lockets and their rosaries over to another section of the table and set them down before grabbing some more tools.

“The metal’s so badly discolored it’s basically black,” Marie noted as she removed her kid gloves for some more suitable cotton “I’m assuming we’ll find some nice silver underneath all the tarnish.” She explained to the camera as she readjusted it so it would focus more on the cleaning of the jewelry rather than on her. “So, I’ve got some of grandad’s tried and true silver cleaning mixture and my handy cloth, so let’s get started. If anyone watching doesn’t want to hear any more of my commentary, just go ahead and mute the video” she mused as she began dipping the cloth into the cleaner mix. 

With deliberate slowness and a very gentle touch, she slowly began to clean away the tarnish. She slowly worked starting from top to bottom and stopped whenever the little details of the locket started to emerge; first, there were the little engravings of what appeared to be wisps of fire, whoever crafted the locket must’ve been quite skilled as after she cleared away more of the tarnish, she was able to see the main design. Taking up most of the space on the front cover of the locket was a beast of legend and myth; a fearsome dragon that appeared to be in mid-flight judging from the curl of the wings, roaring in defiance as the fire escaped from its maw.

“Wow...” Marie was speechless at the design as she set the cloth down to admire the trinket. While normally things like old metalwork weren’t in her area of expertise, one didn’t have to be an expert to admire the clean quality of the work the jeweler had put into the engravings. To make the dragon look like it was in flight and spitting fire was an incredible feat, especially if it was as old as the rest of the contents of the chest. Turning over to clear the backside, she found a very faint inscription “There’s something written here, it’s a little hard to make out at the moment.” 

Taking great care to be delicate and gentle, the cloth was picked up again and dipped into the solution before the grime was slowly wiped away. The layers of grime were thick and it took several wipings and slowly but surely, several words started to become visible.

‘Alone, we fly to the clouds. Together, we soar to the heavens.’ She read aloud as she showed it off to the camera before taking a picture of the inscription. 

Once the outside of the locket was clean and shiny, she very gently opened it up and began cleaning the inside plate where another inscription was hidden. Marie turned the locket back toward the camera, a gloved finger pointing to the faint words.

“ ‘My heart is forever yours’. Both of these inscriptions are in a  _ very _ old French dialect” Marie translated the inscription aloud as the lights flickered again, drawing the young woman’s attention once again. “If we could stop doing that, that’d be lovely” She scolded the lights as she turned her gaze back to the dirty piece of glass in the locket, if she squinted hard enough, she could swear that she saw figures.

With a free hand, she reached into her toolkit again to grab some cleaning cloths and a small jar of glass cleaner. Carefully, the cleaner was applied to the cloth before it was gently rubbed onto the glass to try and remove the cloudiness. Much to great delight, the cloudiness of the glass was quick to fade and the portrait within was visible.

“It looks like a family picture” Marie once again showed the locket to the camera to reveal the figures. “Handpainted, the details are absolutely amazing; the colors still look remarkably fresh too, like as if they were painted recently.” She frowned in curiosity as she leaned back to take pictures, stifling a tired yawn as she did so. “A man with red hair, a woman with brown hair and a little girl with reddish bro-” Her thoughts were interrupted as she stared at the little girl in the portrait, more specifically, the girl’s pigtails; something about the child was familiar to her and she couldn’t think why until hit her- it was the same little girl from the painting she had been working on! “Reddish brown hair” Marie finished her thought “They must be the family who lived in the house.” She officially stated before setting the locket down before reaching for the rosary.

The metal was in the same tarnished state though it would be more of a challenge to clean it due to the delicate links and the gems. Figuring no time like the present, a clean section of the cloth was dipped into the cleaner before it was applied to the small chain; there was just something so  _ satisfying _ about watching the dirt and grime being cleaned away that it made this part of the job one of Marie’s favorites. 

“The sapphires are so beautiful,” Marie commented to no one as she paused in her cleaning, the gemstones in her gloved hand glittering under the fluorescent lights “they almost look like if someone captured the ocean in them. Funny enough, I believe that’s how Grandfather said Great Grandfather used to describe them too, I’m told he was a jeweler. I remember when I was a little girl, I sometimes got tired of reading so I would go to find him, usually in his study, and he’d tell me stories of him doing the same with Great Grandfather and how he learned the various properties of gems. I think he’d be very interested in these.” She reached over to her phone to grab a picture to send to her grandad but her hand recoiled when she saw the time on the clock move to 12:30 “or not, holy f-shit, I’ve been here all night?!” Surprisingly there weren’t any panicked calls or texts but it was probably high time to wrap up and head home. “To be continued, and edited, at a later date” she hastily addressed the camera before turning it off. 

One by one the treasures were carefully repacked into the trunk, great care was given as to not accidentally damage them until everything was in its proper place once more and the lid was gently closed. With that done, Marie could focus on her tools which, thankfully, could be more quickly put away and done so properly at a time that wasn’t midnight.   
“I’m not going to hear the end of this” Marie groaned to herself once everything was packed away to her satisfaction and she grabbed her bag and keys to rush out the door, only to find a note taped to the door.

_ ‘Doctor Beniot- saw you in the labs but didn’t want to bother whatever it was that you were working on. Just check-in before you leave. Don’t want the new guy to think you up and vanished or something. _ _  
_ _ P.S., Alex had us bring up those bits of furniture. They’re logged and stored in the secondary exam room.’ _

_ -Victor’ _

“Oh. That was nice of him.” She thought out loud as she folded up the note into her pocket and started down the hall for the elevator, the clicking of her heeled boots on the smooth floor seemed to echo back louder with each step. As she walked, she couldn’t help but notice just how tired she was; every minute or so passed with a yawn slipping out and her legs felt as if they were made out of both lead and jelly. By the time she made it to the elevator, she could start to feel the heaviness in her eyes begin to creep in “come on, you dumb elevator.” She gripped as she pushed the button a few times, watching it creep down ever so slooooow. After what felt like an eternity, the doors opened with a silence shattering ‘ding’ and Marie stepped in though she paused in pressing the button; if she was this tired, driving home was likely a bad idea given that it was a bit of a commute. Deciding on her choice, instead of heading to the ground floor, she pressed the button for the floor to her office. 

The ride up was just as painfully slow as waiting for the elevator itself, so slow in fact, Marie pulled out her phone to type up a text to her grand. She knew he’d likely have his phone on ‘Do not Disturb’ or the volume turned down since it was so late. 

_ ‘Sorry for the late hour! I got really caught up in work and didn’t notice the time. I hope I didn’t worry you guys too much, I think I might just catch a bit of sleep in my office, don’t really want to be on the road so late. Love you.’ _

She had to wait until she stepped foot out of the elevator and into the hall as the cell service was notorious for being hot garbage, before sending the message as she made her way down to her office. The dimly lit hallway looked like it belonged more in some creepy movie rather than in her usual warm and inviting museum, and though she wasn’t scared of the dark, it was still a tad unsettling; especially given that now the tapping of her boots on the hard tile seemed to echo louder than it did downstairs. It almost reminded her of a scary movie she had been roped into watching, which only made her walk faster down the hall until she came upon the frosted glass door of her office, the door unlocking with a satisfying ‘click’ courtesy of the keys on her silly keychain.

“Why do they always keep it so chilly in here?” Marie shivered as she pulled her coat tighter around her frame as she stepped inside, she didn’t bother turning on the main light but rather used the light of her phone to find her way to the small couch where a small reading lamp sat beside it. Once she set her bag on the ground by the couch, Marie wasted no time making herself comfortable as she kicked off her boots and pulled out her tablet to look over the pictures she had taken. Ever since her university days, she had gotten into the habit of saving the stills not only to her laptop but to also downloading them to the device. There had been many a night in those days where she only fell asleep by looking at the stills of her work. “Now, let’s see what we have here” She yawned tiredly as she began scrolling through the images.


End file.
